Using the 80/20 to Gain Weight? page

[auntie thesis]

So I have a friend who is underweight and suffering from lots of issues. Insomnia, mood swings, painful time of month, low energy levels. She has been working her ass off for the past few months, launching a new business and has let her diet fall to the wayside. Basically, she hasn't been eating much and has been drinking a ton of coffee and eating bread and sweets to fuel herself.

She is built very small and has what some would call a naturally high metabolism. Her bmi (the last time she checked) was 17. Her husband is also very thin and both of them have difficulty gaining weight and maintaining healthy/normal bmi levels.

I told her that she should quit worrying about 80/20 and using that as excuse not to eat. Just effing eat, I said and don't worry about eating bread or whatever. Granted, you shouldn't be eating fast food and ice cream and calling that healthy...but when you're down in the 90s or 80s in terms of weight....you just need to eat.

I know that she wants eat Primally and that her long term goal is get back to her college weight and physique (110-120 lbs, decent amount of muscle, able to lift weights, run, play casual sports) and also to be able to have a family someday.

I'm just at a loss for advice other than eat larger meals, more often and eat more healthy carbs. Anyone have any specific suggestions for things she should do? I know Mark has done a couple of posts in the past on the weight gaining topic, but she seems to be the type who needs more real world suggestions. Plus she doesn't have much muscle and almost no body fat.

[Wanderlust]

Whole milk, steak, eggs, sweet potatoes, more bacon etc. etc.

Being primal isn't the reason she she's not gaining weight, she's not eating enough. Unless they both have hyperthyroidism, they just aren't eating enough.

Guarantee that the problem is they have trained themselves to eat less.

[paleo-bunny]

I agree that it's better to gain on primal wholefoods. If she gains purely through eating more junk, she'll just go from skinny to skinny fat, which is probably worse. And though she obviously shouldn't eat low carb, it sounds like she needs to eat a lot more healthy fats and protein.

[jimhensen]

If you are trying to gain weight it would be stupid to not eat some grains. At least rice or something.

[Wanderlust]

Please explain your logic on eating grains to help add weight.

[jimhensen]

Please explain your logic on eating grains to help add weight.

What are some of the things that low carb diets are touted as? Low carb diets are filling. Over eating meat and vegetables is somewhat hard. It is easy to overeat grains. Why don't you go to bodybuilding.com and ask about gaining weight without grains. It can be done, but it is much harder and unnecessary.

I love this question because I bet if I made a thread asking "do grains make you gain weight" the majority of people on this site would say yes.

[SteakNchop]

What are some of the things that low carb diets are touted as? Low carb diets are filling. Over eating meat and vegetables is somewhat hard. It is easy to overeat grains. Why don't you go to bodybuilding.com and ask about gaining weight without grains. It can be done, but it is much harder and unnecessary.

I love this question because I bet if I made a thread asking "do grains make you gain weight" the majority of people on this site would say yes.

If you went on bodybuilding.com and asked how to gain weight, they would say eat at a caloric surplus. If you asked about macros, they would even add that both protein and fat is necessary for humans but carbs are not. Saying grains or meat or fruit or potatoes or cheese or milk will make you gain weight is foolish. Too much food makes you gain weight.

[jimhensen]

If you went on bodybuilding.com and asked how to gain weight, they would say eat at a caloric surplus. If you asked about macros, they would even add that both protein and fat is necessary for humans but carbs are not. Saying grains or meat or fruit or potatoes or cheese or milk will make you gain weight is foolish. Too much food makes you gain weight.

I completely agree with this, but it is easier to overeat grains, as most people on this site will admit. And for someone that doesn't have a big appetite, it would be silly to tell them to drop the grains.

[Wanderlust]

I should rephrase that, obviously over-consuming grains will cause weight gain. But telling a primal forum to eat grains is like telling vegans to eat meat. Or NAMBLA to stop being pedophiles. Funny, but not helpful.

[auntie thesis]

Well, I took some of the suggestions here.

-told her to add some rice and sweet potatoes to their diets to get some carbs
-told her to try making some protein shakes or drink some full fat milk (raw if they can afford it) to get some extra fat and calories
-told her to aim for 1600-2000 calories a day to start
-told her to try and make sure that she eats throughout the day
-nagged her about the coffee addiction (caffeine speeds the metabolism, duh)
-recommended that she try tryptophan to help her sleep